Several children die in fire after mom went partying at club (video)

(Scroll down for video) Several children died in a house fire after their mother went out partying, leaving them home alone, according to court proceedings.

The gas had been cut off, and as the temperature dropped below zero, four children were kept warm by the heat of dangerous electric heaters and a hot plate.

Tatiana Meakens was so desperate to party Friday night, that she left her small children home alone in her single family home, prosecutors said.

It proved to be a fatal decision. Meakens, 23, and her sister Brittany, 22, both bowed their heads in silence in court as prosecutors described how a fire caused by an unsupervised hot plate at home killed Javaris Davis, 2, and Jariyah Meakens, 3, early Saturday morning.

Assistant Cook County Attorney, Jamie Dickler, alleged that the sisters, accused of endangering the welfare of a child, both be held on $100,000 bond on Monday. They knew the children would be left without care when each decided to go out partying separately.

They had discussed who would take care of Javaris, jariyah, and their older siblings, Darnell, 7, and Marquis, 4, the same evening, and agreed that Tatiana would stay home in the 6400 block of South Paulina, Dickler said.

However, while preparing to leave, Tatiana received a call inviting her to a CD release party at Blue Island and decided to go, the prosecutor said.

"She ran out of the house even though Brittany told her not to," Dickler said. Brittany then also left, leaving the children unattended.

Neither adult came back for hours, until they learned that the building had burned down, Dickler said.

When they finally arrived at the fire, they came up with a cover story, telling police and firefighters that a cousin named "Brandy" had been watching the children, but there was no such person, the prosecutor said.

Darnell and Marquis escaped the fire and have been in the custody of child services since then, but the younger children were trapped in a room on the first floor and died of smoke inhalation.